Building Again from the Ground Up
by mediahybrid117
Summary: After being cared for by Frostbite, Danny and the others take a ghost portal to find other people. However, of course, they run into more trouble- Danny's powers start failing when he needs them the most and nobody knows why. This is a sequel to 'Amity Laid in Ruins' so read that first before reading this. Yeah- blood, bad words, and plenty of drama. This was 'Family Care'.
1. Prologue

**It is recommended that you read 'The Last Holdout' first. This story is the collaboration of 'Amity Laid in Ruins' and 'The Last Holdout'. It'll make a little more sense.**

"It's time that the four of you went to find survivors of your own kind." Frostbite said. "We allowed for you to recover and to regain your bearings. But you don't belong here."

Danny nodded. Sam, Jazz, and Tucker were off spending time with the rest of Frostbite's tribe while they spoke in private. "I appreciate your help." Danny started, "But what if we don't find anyone? What if we really are the last people in the world?"

"It's not possible." Frostbite smiled, "Not only were people evacuated, but there are too many humans in this world for there to be only four people left." He pat Danny's shoulder, "I promise there's someone out there." He reached in his belt, "This is a map of the Ghost Zone. Each of these portals," he pointed to small swirled patterns that laid scattered on the map, "Leads to somewhere in the world. Pick a portal, and that shall be your destination." He said, "You belong with your people, Danny."

He studied the map for a while, "Thanks, Frostbite." He said.

"Anytime, young one." He smiled.

Danny stepped out to the snow village that he and the others had been staying. He saw Jazz playing with some of the children of the tribe while Sam and Tucker watched. He sat by them.

"So what's the plan?" Sam asked.

"We find more people that are _alive_." Danny said, "We've been here long enough and despite how much we like it here," he sighed, "We belong with our own kind." He said. "We don't actually belong here."

"And what if we don't find anyone?" Tucker asked.

"That's gotta be _someone_." Danny said, "We can't just _happen_ to be the last four people in the world."

Sam nodded. "True." She said and stood up, ""Well, let's get going?"

"Get going where?" Jazz asked.

"We gotta find more survivors. It'd do us some good if we were around other people." Tucker explained.

"And these aren't people?" Jazz asked and gestured to the tribe behind her.

"Around other humans." Frostbite said and approached them. "However, in the off chance that you _don't_ find other people and you can't get to safety, feel free to come back. We will always welcome you as our own." He smiled.

Armed with new weapons, and fully equipped with medical supplies and anything else they may need for their trek, they were driven in one of the cruisers the tribe had by Frostbite and taken to a portal they all agreed on. The portal, when it opened, showed a neighborhood street labeled 'Erie'.

"And this is in Arizona?" Sam asked.

"I'm sure the climate change would be nice." Tucker said.

Frostbite chuckled, "Oh, I sense a decent enough energy from this one."

"So do I." Danny said, "It's about May?" he only felt the heat emitted from the portal.

"June." Frostbite corrected, "It's even hotter."

Danny looked at the others hesitantly. "Are we ready for this?"

"As ready as we'll ever be."


	2. Chapter 1: Lost

The area was strewn with corpses of all types. Smokers, Hunters, Boomers and even a Witch or a Tank here or there. The sidewalks and streets were almost painted with blood. They stood for the longest time, unsure as to do. One or two zombies stood around the calm neighborhood lined with oleander bushes on each side. One particular group of pink oleander was the group they stumbled out of from the ghost portal. Danny took a deep, shaking, hesitant breath and turned to the others.

"So what's the plan?" Sam asked before he had a chance to speak.

"Well, I was going to ask you guys what you think we should do." He confessed, "Obviously there's people here." He said.

"Right." Jazz nodded.

"How about one of us picks a direction?" Tucker suggested, "And we'll just take turns."

"We avoid major roads." Jazz said firmly.

"Sounds good." Danny said, "There may be nothing to shoot here, but who knows what sort of progress they made."

"Okay. So which way first?" Sam asked.

Danny looked down one street, finding a blinking yellow light at one end. Then he looked down the other side, finding what looked like the fencing to a field at a school. "There's a school down that way." He said, "But there's a stop light going the other way."

Tucker sighed, "Who's gonna pick first?"

"Well, this was your idea. So it should be you." Sam said.

"I'd say we go toward the school." He said, "We just stay on the other side of the street from it."

"Let's go, then." Jazz said and began walking.

They studied their surroundings, first a church on their right, then the rest of the buildings around them were houses. "We should check a couple of these houses for supplies." Danny announced.

"Good idea." Sam nodded.

"This house here." Tucker pointed.

"Fenced-in, massive bushes so you can't see in or out, massive house-"

"Drug dealers." Danny cut off Jazz. "They _have_ to have a gun."

"Or two." Sam said, "What makes you so sure they were drug dealers?" Sam asked.

"Why else would they hide their house like this?" he asked.

"True." They rounded the corner to see the front of the house and found a gate to the driveway.

Danny took a deep breath and pushed open the gate, hearing an alarm go off. He jumped and instantly tried to close it. He glanced over and found infected running from each direction at them. He instantly abandoned the idea of closing the gate and started shooting.

"Should've known they'd have an alarm on their gate." Jazz teased and fired.

"Shut up. I don't see you suggesting what they'd have." He snapped.

Sam turned slightly and shot to the left, glancing back the other way to see what was incoming. She finally heard a click, indicating that she'd run out of ammunition for her SMG and forcing her to switch to her halberd. She glanced over and found that it was just Jazz and Tucker shooting. She did a double-take. Only Jazz and Tucker? She turned around and found Danny practically glued to the wall with a Smoker's tongue tightly wrapped around his body and neck. He struggled weakly before closing his eyes and going limp. "Danny!" she ran to his side and hit the tongue with the halberd, catching him as he fell forward. She quickly pulled the tongue off of him and carefully laid him down. In the back of her mind, she heard the firing stop. All she could hear was silence.

"What happened?" Tucker asked.

Sam studied the bruises forming lightly around Danny's neck that went into hiding in the collar of his shirt. "Smoker." She breathed. She held him closer and put her ear to his chest, finding that his heart beat faintly. It was all she could hear. She froze, "He's not breathing…" she gasped. She quickly laid him down, however, before she was able to do anything, he gasped loudly and coughed. He rolled over and almost gagged.

"Danny?" Jazz leaned over to look at his face.

He panted and stared at the ground for what felt like too long. He refocused his vision and took a deep breath. Their voices were muffled to him as they spoke either amongst themselves or to him. He shook his head and rested on his knees and elbows. His hearing finally became clear. They'd been calling him and asking if he was okay.

Sam touched his shoulder, making him flinch, "Are you okay?" she asked.

He nodded and sat on his knees, "I'm okay." He breathed. He stood up.

"Can you even walk?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." he said as he stumbled and caught his sister for support. He sighed, "Okay, my balance is out the window and my head is killing me." He admitted, "But I'll be fine."

"Danny," Jazz started, "Why didn't you use your ghost powers?" she asked.

"I tried." He said, "They weren't working." He said. He looked over across the street and saw the school- a high school, standing amongst the houses and one other church further down the intersecting street. He tried taking a step forward, declaring himself stable and nodding in approval. He looked down each side of the street, "Which way?" he asked.

"Are we just abandoning the idea of more guns in this house?" Sam asked.

"That Smoker's still in there." He grunted and studied the north end of the street. "I see stop lights down there, but barely." Then he looked south, "Stop lights are right there."

"Let's go left, then." Jazz decided. "More houses, more of a chance that we find someone there or we find shelter of our own." She began walking.

Tucker followed close by her side while Danny and Sam trailed behind. Sam glanced over at Danny who rubbed his throat, "You okay?" she asked loud enough for only him to hear.

"That hurt." He said. "And scared me."

She put an arm over his shoulder and walked with him, "You're okay." She whispered.

He nodded, "I know. I just wasn't expecting a Smoker to almost strangle me to death." He looked up, seeing the sky was starting to get dark. "We should find someplace to stay." He announced.

"Let's see what's across the street." Tucker suggested, "I get the feeling we'll find something." He said, leading the others across the street. He glanced up at a sign labeled 'Oakland', "Not here." He shook his head. When they reached a street labeled 'Tulsa' Danny glanced across the street at the next intersection and saw pawn shop next to a convenience store. "Let's try there." He said. "Maybe we'll find something." He walked them the rest of the way down the block, across the street labeled 'Galveston' and realized that the door had been broken down.

"That doesn't look good." Tucker said.

Danny held out his fire axe and hit the door frame with the blade. Two zombies ran out at them but were quickly decapitated just as they ran through the door frame.

"Geez, Danny." Jazz said under her breath.

"What?" he looked at her, "We've been out here for about a week and a half. I've already shot off zombie heads and I saw that through a rifle scope." He explained, "This is the lesser of two evils." He stepped into the store and looked around, "There's five handguns in here, and a bunch of pocket knives." He said. "Who wants what?"

"I say we take one of each." Tucker said.

"Okay." Danny handed each of them one handgun and one pocket knife of their specific color. Tucker's was silver, Sam's was purple and black, Jazz's was a turquoise blue, and Danny's was bright green. He looked around the store, finding nothing else of interest. "Let's check next door for some food." He suggested.

The convenience store was in worse shape than the pawn shop. Shelves where knocked over, bags of food were torn open and scattered about, and the glass in the coolers in the back were shattered. They heard giggling inside.

"Nope." Tucker turned around and walked out of the building, "No Jockeys."

Danny chuckled and quietly ushered the girls out. "Let's keep going." He smiled. He glanced across the street and considered for a moment maybe to check the apartment complex that overlooked the convenience store, Laundromat, pawn shop, and the massive empty lot they walked by, but decided against it and kept walking. They crossed the street again and looked over at an elementary school that sat beside them.

"Well if that's not convenient." Danny said.

"Get out of one school and go to the one right down the street." Tucker agreed.

"I don't think it's a middle school too." Jazz said. "K through six. Unless the high school continues with seventh grade."

They all shrugged and just passed the school calmly. Danny looked back up to the sky and found it was darker out than it was about ten minutes ago. He looked around at all of the houses they passed, scared as to what they were going to do that night for shelter. They've passed a few vans and a couple of SUVs, but all of them were either smashed or overturned. He looked back out to the empty streets and still only found the dead bodies.

"There's really not much to kill out here." Danny noted again. Not a split second later, he regretted saying it.

There was gurgling behind them. Close behind them.

"No…" Danny turned around, finding nothing. "No, no, no…" he search everywhere.

"It's behind the wall." Jazz said quietly. All four of them had turned around. Before they knew it, they were covered in the slime and mentally gagging that they were covered in vomit again.

After another series of 'no' that Danny had muttered. He froze in disgust, "F*ck." He scowled and tried going intangible, finding his powers weren't cooperating. He pulled out his newly acquired handgun and began firing at the incoming infected.

"Damn it, he's in the front yard right here." Jazz cursed.

Danny tried once more to go intangible and still couldn't. He turned and fired at the fat infected that hid behind the small cacti that was planted in the front yard, not that his hiding was very effective. The Boomer exploded and managed to miss everyone with his explosive remains.

Sam knocked back a zombie with her halberd and hit it again with the blade, sending it to the ground with a crack in its head. Then she turned around and came face-to-face with a Shifter. She froze momentarily, then swung the blade at him, lodging the blade into his ribs and getting it stuck.

The Shifter sneered and held the blade into his side, pushing it in further and yanking the blade from Sam's hands. He pulled the weapon out of his ribs and running the other end into Sam's stomach, knowing that the end was pointed. She yelled and grabbed the handle to keep it from going in any deeper.

Danny turned around and shot the Shifter in the back of his head, not knowing that he had stabbed Sam. He gasped after the Shifter fell, "Sam!" he barked and caught her before she fell. He held her close and shot at any of the infected that came close with the exclusion of one or two that kicked his back or his leg, though they were quickly dealt with. He watched for a moment to see anything if anything else was coming. Then he looked back at Sam.

Tucker and Jazz gasped, "What-"

"It was a Shifter." Danny said and held her closer. "Check if this house is safe." He said.

"Danny, a Boomer and a Shifter came out of hiding with this house. The door's destroyed and the windows are gone." Tucker said.

"Find something…" he whispered.

"Jazz, you stay here." Tucker said and ran down the street.

Jazz watched him leave, then looked down at her brother. She knelt by him and brushed Sam's hair back. She looked down at her stomach and studied the wound in her stomach that was who knows how deep. She wrapped an arm around Danny's shoulders and hugged him, "She's going to be okay." She whispered.

Danny had his forehead to Sam's and one hand gripping her hand tightly. He was silent, taking deep, shaking breaths. His eyes closed and his mental stress at max capacity. "We just got here not even an hour ago…" he said quietly.

Jazz was silent, "We didn't know what we were in for when we got here."

"We knew-"

"I found one." Tucker ran back panting. "It's two houses away from this one but it's locked."

Danny looked down at his hand and made it go intangible, finally unable to see his hand, "Now my powers work." He said. He carefully picked up Sam and stood up. "Where is it?" he asked.

"Down this way." Tucker said, "The one on the other side of the fire hydrant."

Danny looked at the house for a moment and ran carefully to the front door. He phased through the door and hesitated before taking another step. The couches in the living room were clean. The counters were clear and the house was unharmed. He carefully laid Sam on the couch and let Jazz and Tucker inside. "We're staying here." He said.

"Well- duh." Tucker scoffed and examined Sam. "The Shifter got her pretty good." He took off his bag that Frostbite had given him and pulled out a first aid kit. He carefully cleaned the wound, glad that there was none of the Boomer puke on her while he was working. "You guys go check the place out. I'll take care of her." He said.

Danny and Jazz hesitantly turned and started exploring the house, which wasn't that big. It had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Each room looked as though it house two people each. Considering two people slept in the Queen-sized bed.

"Two adults, two teenagers, and two little kids."

"No kidding." Danny agreed. He turned back and started for the living room, turning left to check the backyard. Finding the area clear, he opened the door and stepped out. There was a big green lawn and a pool beside it. The pool didn't have much water inside, showing the possibility that it was probably being drained when the outbreak hit. He looked just passed the lawn, finding three tall pine trees. He took a deep breath and leaned his forehead on the tree and closed his eyes.

"Danny?"

He turned around and looked at Jazz.

"Are you okay?" she asked and approached him.

He scoffed, "Already stressed out about this place."

She glanced at the bruises around his neck and sighed. "I can imagine."

"I mean- I knew Shifters were smart, but stabbing Sam?"

"I know, Danny. I know." She put her hands on his shoulders. "Things aren't going to get much easier." She admitted. "But the good news is: we _know_ there's people out here. If you'd like, Tucker and I can go find them tomorrow morning and you can stay here to watch Sam." She watched him for a while and had a feeling he didn't like the idea, "Or… something…"

He closed his eyes and leaned against the tree. He sighed. "We'll have to figure something out." He said.

"Hey, guys?" Tucker called.

They looked up at him.

"Uh... She's okay. Danny, she said she wants to see you." He said.

Danny made his way into the house, "Thank you." He said to Tucker before going to Sam's side. "Are you okay?"

"I'll live." She smiled sleepily.

He took her hand, "You're cold."

"I don't really have a lot of blood in me right now." She half-chuckled. He gave her a serious look, making her smirk disappear. She sighed, "I know you're worried. And I'm guessing you're already stressed out." She started, "I'm going to be fine." she said. "I don't even feel it right now."

"Not always a good thing." He said.

"Unless Frostbite packed us painkillers." She smirked.

He laughed.

She smiled, "Danny, if you're stressed out. Why don't you go on a quick flight?"

"Sam, it's dark out. There's zombies everywhere." He said.

"I know. Which is why I say 'flight'. It's not walking, but I'm sure it still clears your head." She said. Then she smiled, "Go ghost."

He smiled and touched his forehead to hers. "Thanks." He whispered. He kissed her forehead and stepped back. The two rings scanned his body and turned him to his ghost half. He fell backwards through the ground and vanished.

**Um... review if you think whether or not I should continue this one. If yes, then I need ideas badly**


	3. Chapter 2: An Empty Pantry

**I don't own Poke'mon, Dollar General, Danny Phantom, L4D2, or Sonic:Drive-in. Obviously. Just felt I should say so. **

Bright daylight shone through the windows of their safe house. Sam ignored the pool fencing bolted to the outside of the windows and stared sleepily at the sky. It felt like a normal day, as though there wasn't a zombie outbreak. She missed days like that. She'd be walking with Danny and Tucker to the movies or the park, or even chasing Danny and some ghost he's fight down the street. She might even stare out the window in class and completely ignore Lancer's lecture on god knows what kind of literature he's introducing. She turned her head and saw Tucker lying on the floor wrapped in a light blue comforter decorated with Pokémon, and Jazz lying on the couch with a purple comforter with grey and pink plumes of who-knows-what, both sound asleep. She looked around and sat up. She flipped the dark purple, flowered comforter off of her lap and took a deep breath, remembering that they were fighting through a zombie apocalypse and one of them got smart and cost her the halberd. She stood up carefully and stepped over Tucker. She walked down the halls and checked the bedrooms, furrowing her brows along the way and finally checking the bathrooms. Finding them empty. "Where is he?" she asked herself. She walked back out to the living room, "Guys? Did Danny come back last night?" she asked, loud enough to wake someone up.

Tucker rolled over and squinted, "No." he said, "He went flying, right?" he asked.

"He did. I just thought he'd be back by now." Sam said.

Tucker wrestled out of the blanket and put his glasses back on, "Maybe he found people and stayed with them." he suggested.

"Wouldn't he have come back here first and gotten us?"

He sighed and stood up, stretching his arms and back, "I don't know." He yawned and walked her back to the couch, "You shouldn't be up." He said, "Lie down, I'll go-"

The was knocking at the door, "Guys?" Danny's voice asked from the other side. "Can someone let me in?"

Tucker jumped up and opened the door, "Damn, man, you look like you got hit by a Tank." He gasped.

"Danny!" Sam gasped, seeing Danny limp in with scrapes on the side of his face and down the corresponding arm. "What happened?"

"I crashed." He said flatly, "My powers gave out while I was about seventy feet in the air." he sat down next to Sam.

Jazz rolled over and fell off the couch with a sharp, short shriek. She sat up and looked around, gasping at Danny, "What happened to your face?"

"He crashed." Sam said, "His powers gave out while he was flying."

"I skidded on the street and had to hide somewhere." He explained. "That's why I didn't come back." He said guiltily.

"Where did you hide?" Sam asked.

"Under a truck. A Hunter apparently had the same idea so I kicked it." He said.

Tucker sighed and stood up, heading for the kitchen, "I hope there's food here." He said and began digging around.

Jazz got up and grabbed her bag of medical supplies sitting on Danny's other side and cleaning the scrapes, "Luckily these aren't too bad." She commented.

"So you didn't find people?" Sam asked sadly.

He shook his head and sighed, "Not a trace."

"There's nothing here." Tucker complained, "Not even canned food." He said.

Jazz's stomach growled, "We should go find food."

"How did Frostbite _not_ pack us food?" Sam asked.

"Uh- oh…" Danny paused, "Ghosts don't need to eat, so it probably didn't occur to him." He said.

"Ghosts don't bleed either and he gave us medical supplies." Tucker pointed out.

"Because we went to Frostbite in horrible condition. We _needed_ supplies."

"Let's just not argue about it." Jazz waved her hands, "Either way, we have no food or water."

"No, the water works." Tucker corrected, "So does the electricity. If we can find anything, I could probably cook it." He said.

Danny paused, "The front flowerbed of this place has peppers and lettuce for some reason."

"Good enough for me." Sam said.

"Not us. We don't eat veggies." Tucker crossed his arms.

"No, Tucker, _you_ don't eat veggies." Danny corrected.

"Whatever! Let's just go out and find food." Jazz snapped and waved her hands again, "Tucker and I will go. Danny, you stay here with Sam." She instructed.

"Sounds good." He said.

"Let's check the backyard first. Since Danny found veggies in the front yard and there's plants in the planters back there." Jazz said. "We'll just pick them when we get back." She said and picked up her tactical shotgun from the table.

"Hey, if you see my halberd out there, can you grab it for me?" Sam asked.

"Sure thing." Tucker said and retrieved his M-16. "We'll be back." He said and followed Jazz out the door.

"Be safe." Sam said.

"Good luck." Danny called after them.

Jazz closed the door and looked at the lettuce and peppers in the planter, "We forgot to check the back.

"We'll check when we get back." Tucker shrugged and started down the street

"Hey, you don't think Danny finds it weird that we're together now, right?" Jazz asked.

"I don't think he'd mind." Tucker shrugged, "Just as long as you weren't dating Dash or something."

"Or Johnny 13." She said.

"That pissed him off so bad." Tucker chuckled.

"I should've listened." She confessed.

"Yes, you should've." He laughed.

She stopped as they passed an ambulance. The back doors stood open.

"Maybe there's supplies in here." Tucker climbed in, ignoring a body that laid across the way and sat against the wall. Tucker looked around, "Nothing. It looks like they used it all on whoever they were operating on before."

Jazz looked on the stretcher and found the restraints were broken and a trail of blood led outside.

"Hey!" Tucker exclaimed, "A defibrillator." He said.

"Let's hold onto it." Jazz said.

Tucker grew quiet.

"You never know." She said, "We almost had to resort to CPR with Danny."

"Right." Tucker nodded and handed her the device, "You hold onto it." He said, "I don't trust myself to keep track of it."

"Okay." She took it and put it in her bag. "Let's keep going. Did you see any sort of food in here?" she asked.

"Uh-uh." He shook his head and climbed out. "Maybe there's a fast food place here." He said and continued down the street, coming across a major road.

Jazz looked down both sides. "Wow… there's nothing here." She marveled, seeing how barren the street was, even of cars.

"Maybe the military cleared this place out?" Tucker asked.

"Maybe." She shrugged, "It's a good possibility." She looked around to try and find anything that might have food. "There's that place." She pointed at a small convenience store on the corner of a small block, "Or we could try the Sonic right next to it."

"We'll try the Sonic." Tucker said, "If anything, they'd have patties frozen in the freezer." He said, "And hot dogs, and maybe some chicken."

"Do you know how cook _any_ of that stuff?" she asked.

"At a house, no." he shook his head, "I worked at Nasty Burger for a little bit, remember?" he approached the small building, taking care as to not trip over any overturned chairs on the patio. He tapped the glass for a moment and peered inside the window.

"What are you waiting for?" Jazz asked.

"If there's an alarm in there attached to the windows, I don't want to set it." He said.

She thought for a moment, "Hey, can't your PDA-"

"It's dead. The battery died when we were at Frostbite's." he explained. He went around to one of the doors and gave it a push, finding that it opened.

"I guess they didn't have time to lock up, come the apocalypse." Jazz shrugged.

He smiled and held the door open with his back, "After you."

She smiled and stepped inside, finding that the inside of the building wasn't as trashed as she expected. She expected cups and fries strewn everywhere and at least a machine knocked over, but everything was actually empty. She followed Tucker to the back, "Let's just hope there's something here." She said.

He stepped into the fridge and gasped, "Jalapeño poppers!" he exclaimed and grabbed two bags. Then he looked around and chuckled, "That's the only thing here."

"Those are Cheddar Peppers." She corrected and went around and checked the freezer.

Tucker glanced at the bag for a moment, "Even better." He marveled and hugged the bags.

She opened the freezer and found nothing. "Someone must've staked this place out." She said, "There's nothing in the freezer."

"Okay then." Tucker said, "I can settle with these." He smiled and stuffed the bags into Jazz's bag.

Jazz tried keeping her balance and even used the doorframe to keep from falling backward. "I'll just have a salad with Sam." She said. She followed Tucker out the back door and looked to her right, "Let's check there." She suggested.

"Okay." He said eagerly. Then he paused, seeing how destroyed the front doors were. "No… let's check somewhere else." He said, "I don't trust it."

"Come on, it's a dollar store." She rolled her eyes.

"No." he shook his head, "I get a bad vibe from that place."

"Okay." Jazz shrugged, "Let's just keep going then."

As they walked down the street in silence, Jazz heard a yelp from behind her. She quickly turned around and found Tucker missing. "Tucker?" she called. Then she pulled out her shotgun and stood defensively, "Tucker! This isn't funny!" she shouted. Then she swallowed hard, "Tucker?" her voice broke.

There was a shriek before a Hunter pushed her down from behind and began tearing at her back, "Tucker!" she screamed, "Help! Do something!" she shrieked, unable to do anything.

Just as things were starting to go black, there was several gunshots and the clawing stopped, instead, only dead weight kept her down. When the weight was removed, she looked up fearfully and locked eyes with Tucker.

"Are you okay?" he asked and helped her up.

"Ow…" she groaned.

He looked down and picked up the bag. The straps were destroyed. He sighed and held onto the handle and pulled her arm over his shoulder, "Let's get you home." He said. "I think we have enough food."

"Where were you?" she asked weakly.

"A Smoker got me and pulled me between a couple of cars." He explained. "Sorry."

"Just as long as you're okay." She smiled.

He returned the smile and kissed her head.

Danny and Sam sat on the couch next to each other and stared at the ceiling. "They're not going to find any meat." Sam said.

"Yeah, but they're gonna find something." Danny shrugged.

She looked over at him, "You look tired." She said.

"I didn't get much sleep last night." He said, "Asphalt is very uncomfortable."

"Good thing you found that charger." Sam looked over at the bundled up cable that sat next to him.

"No kidding." Danny nodded. "Tucker will be so thrilled." He said.

"What about the voice?" Sam sneered.

He thought for a while, "Destroy the charger. He'll never know."

There was pounding on the door that made their blood run cold. Danny jumped up, grabbed his axe and checked the door.

"Danny! Just let us in! Jazz is hurt." Tucker's voice barked from the other side.

Danny quickly opened the door and helped support Jazz. "What happened?" he asked.

"Hunter." Tucker said, "It jumped on her when a Smoker got me."

Danny laid Jazz on the couch and looked at her back. He grabbed his medical supplies and started cleaning her back. "Where was this?" Danny asked.

"In front of a set of apartments just passed the Dollar General." Tucker dug through the bag and pulled out the Cheddar Peppers. He then set the defibrillator on the table. "Found jalepeno poppers." He said.

"Oh, really?" Danny glanced at him for a moment, then went back to cleaning Jazz's back.

"We found a defibrillator, too." Jazz said sleepily.

"Good." Danny started patching up her back, "Never know when we'll need it." He finished her back, "Get some sleep." He said.

Sam had stepped out to the backyard and the front yard the collect some vegetables for a salad.

After food was prepared, Danny, Sam and Tucker sat and ate silently. Tucker ate just some Cheddar Peppers, Sam and just some salad, and Danny ate some of both. Sam watched Danny for a while without him noticing. Although they were faint, Danny still had the bruises around his neck from the Smoker attack the day before. But Tucker didn't have them from the Smoker attack maybe just five minutes ago. She couldn't tell if it was just because he was darker and she couldn't see them, or the Smoker didn't that tight of a grip on him.

"Hey, Tucker, I found a charger for the PDA." Danny said.

"Oh, awesome." Tucker dug around in his pockets, "Oh no…" he panicked a little, "I must've dropped it somewhere."

"Maybe the Smoker made you drop it?" Sam suggested.


End file.
